Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports JMT Pre-Trip Report

I am starting this report pre-trip for a couple of reasons. I hope to write this up at length , and want to get in the rhythm of reporting. Also, would like to meet up with any of you who may be on the MWMT around the 26 of August, or even on the JMT between Aug 5 and 26. So just the basics first. Starting at Happy Isles August 5, with an easy day one, only to Little Yos Valley the first night, then building mileage from there. Strategy is to hit the passes early each day, camping each night near the base of the next climb. Resup at Tuolumne, Red's and MTR, also building pack weight.

Back story here is that I have been working up to this for 49 years, ever since I got snowed out at Trail Camp in the freak storm of late August, 1964. This shot is that storm, different location, but the only current documentation of the weather event I can find. Imagine TC looking like that a month from now, but it did in '64. I have been back several times, and still haven't managed to get down the other side of Trail Crest, even with 2 summits. 2011 HST hike got stopped below Kaweah Gap, by late snow.

Next installment: how it took 50 years for the idea of this trip to dawn. After that: Planes, Trains and No automobiles: Doing the JMT coast to coast, portal to Portal to portal, all on public transportation.

great plan - maybe we'll see you out there when we are heading northbound. We will do a yo-yo from Tuolumne to the Portal and back to Tuolumne, mostly on the JMT and starting August 2nd, finishing back in the north around August 27 - no public transportation needed between start and finish on our route.

I'll keep an eye out for you. I'm guessing somewhere around Muir Pass, the 19th or so? I am the old guy with the Kelty Serac flying a green ribbon.

look for a guy with a big blue Whitney 95 pack and a teenager with a smallish 48 liter Osprey pack, both wearing red La Sportiva Trango GTX boots. I usually have a big fat Nikon DSLR hanging over my shoulder.

We start out a little slower to make sure we're firing on all cylinders before we get up to regular daily 20-25 mile speed, so we're not going to be around Muir Pass this early.

right now this is the northbound plan around that date, maybe a day faster than this

8-19 Bighorn Plateau - Junction Pass - back to JMT at Vidette
8-20 Vidette to Twin Lakes south of Pinchot
8-21 Pinchot, Mather and possibly to Potluck Pass (High Route after Palisade Lakes)

If you're on Muir Pass on the 19th, somewhere around Mather may be the likely point where our paths cross.

Kelty Serac should be unique enough to spot you

I'll look for you there.

At 14, I am told I was pretty mature. That is not to say, however, that I was not just as oblivious as the next adolescent, I just hid it better. One thing that was lost in the fog of those years was the John Muir Trail. Oh I had heard a lot about it: I even started out to do the southern 15 miles or so of it, in late August of 1964. An early, freak snowstorm cut that trip short at Trail Camp. At that point, of course, Whitney was the immediate focus, and my dominating image of that trip, and the Sierra for years to come. I could see Whitney from the trail, from the road back to Lone Pine, and in my mind all the way back home to Connecticut, and up to the recent past.

The leader of that aborted trip, Bernard Clayton, was later a food writer of some renown, and at the time was my introduction to John Muir. All through the three days we spent together, he regaled the group with his intimate knowledge of Muir's writings, and seemed to have a Muir quote for just about any occasion, including such moments as our observation of a water ouzle at Trailside Meadow. By the end of even this short trip, I was fascinated with two things about the Sierra: Mt Whitney and John Muir.

Three years later, I summitted Whitney with my parents. I am sure I read all the trail signs, including the enamel plate at the top, but I have no recollection of any realization that I had just done the first two miles of the JMT.

It wasn't till years later that this trail, named after my chosen hero, emerged from the fog. In 1970 or so, I went along on trip with some college friends, as it turned out, to Little Yosemite Valley. It was not until we got to Happy Isles, and I read the TH sign there that I put two and two hundred together. Epiphany! So that's where it goes! The storied John Muir Trail runs from right here to my other favorite place in the world, Mt Whitney.

The JMT immediately became my Road Not Taken, as Robert Frost warned:

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

Well, indeed, way did lead on to way, and I never did get back to the JMT, until two years ago, when I finally realized that if I didn't do something soon, I would never come back, and lest

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:

I would have to act.

Except that I took the road more travelled by, and am not now telling this with a sigh, but with a whoop: I am going back, and starting the JMT, SoBo from Happy Isles, a week from today.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I am doing this trip all on public transportation, portal to portal. As many modes in the mix as I can come up with. Picking up the local bus, Cape Cod RTA right outside my door, connecting with the (I kid you not) Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway Company bus to Boston. Jet Blue to SFO, Super Shuttle to the CalTrain Station in The City. Then the Amtrak Bus Train Bus to Emeryville, Merced and Yosemite Visitor Center. Then 220 miles or so on foot to Whitney Portal, hitch to Lone Pine, followed by ESTA to Reno, Amtrak (all train this time) back to Boston, and the aforementioned bus lines back to my front door.

This will be my first trip in forty-five years or so that didn't involve may own private car at some point, at least a rental. It will be interesting to see if I can actually make all these connections without resorting to a friend's car at some point. It seems like public transportation ought to be easier than this.

The complexity of getting around the country also brings back to me to me the significance of traveling some five or six thousand miles by machine in order to walk a couple of hundred. The trail is less than 5% of the trip by that measure, although it is 80 percent of the time and 99 percent of the reason.

Back next month, with a report on the 99 percent.

Peace out

Dog

Go Salty, go! We'll be watching your SPOT for the fun.

I hope the trip goes perfectly smoothly. Obviously you have been planning this for a long time. I don't think there is any way around it when the complexities of transportation come up. It's just the nature of time schedules, and making sure you have the information at hand that you need to catch the next mode to your next destination.

Saltydog is on his way!

Spot map shows him near Clark Point above Vernal Fall.

With the map, it is best to hover your mouse pointer over the "Map" button in the upper-right corner, and click the "Terrain" checkbox. It shows the shaded relief that makes it easier to view the mountainous layout, and the JMT shows up, too.

Edit Wed, Aug 7: He's getting a burger at Tuolumne Meadows now.

He's leaving Tuolumne Meadows. I think he spent several hours at the store this morning. I hope he didn't have any trouble getting supplies.

Bee sure to leave out reports that he is entering the restroom

He should have better views than we had in the Donahue to Mammoth area. last week we could not see Banner or Ritter, but the Shaver lake fire is dwindling. We had clear skies south of Mammoth on our South Lake to Onion Valley week with 4 guys, then just finished a 2-nighter on the North Lake to South Lake via Lamarck col. Clear skies, no bugs, no bears, no smoke. I hope Peter has it the same.
Harvey....resting in Bishop.

Saltydog is on day 5, and crossed Donohue pass, leaving Yosemite, and entering Inyo N.F. area.

From his SPOT map, it looks like he'll be at Thousand Island Lake this evening -- a really beautiful spot.

He apparently had phone service, and sent this picture to his family from the pass.

SaltyDog is on Day 7, and made contact from Reds Meadow. Thus far, he has followed the itinerary he layed out, going about 10 miles/day on average. Salty reports weather has been great, though very cold at night (in 30's). No thunderstorms have come in his path thus far, though he has seen some from afar.

Salty reports most creek beds are bone dry, but creeks are strong and gushing where fed by Glaciers (which he met with mixed feelings; beautiful sight, water in abundance, but sad to know Glaciers are melting.) An example he gave of gushing creek is just above Lyle Forks Headwaters, where it is gushing like a normal season.

Salty had no problem receiving his resupply boxes that he mailed to himself at Tuolomne Meadows or at Red Meadows (though one at Red Meadows arrived a little beat up.) He says he found himself oversupplied with food, because he brought too much, and is eating less. So he donated some food to hikers resupply at Red Meadows.

Salty says the traveling community is really something, and revels in the camaraderie, and the sharing of conditions at that lake or this pass. Some special connections include Rocky and Annette from Seattle were at Red Meadows today, supporting their daughter, Marie, who is hiking the JMT (with friends) for the first time.

Also at or near Lyle Canyon a few days ago (Aug. 8), a hiker overtook Salty from behind, and called out, "Hey, are you flying your Freak Flag?," alluding to his neon green ribbon of that name that trails from his pack. This hiker is a woman who is a member of the Whitney Hikers Assoc., who goes by "Akichow." As the story goes, they ended up cutting Salty's freak flag in two, and Akichow is now flying her own Freak Flag. Salty thought Akichow would be at least a day ahead of him at this point. (Note another hiker near Nevada Falls on Day 1 called out, "Hey I recognise that flag," but whizzed by Salty Dog before Salty could catch whizzer's name.

Salty plans to push to Purple Lake tonight. Next resupply (and probably next communication) will be from Muir Trail Ranch on or around Day 12.

Thanks for the update, Blue G! From his SPOT map, I can see he is on his way south of Reds Meadow, near Boundary Creek.

I spent the night near there once and found the creek water to be extremely salty. I had to go find a surface-water stream for drinkable water.

That's cool that people are recognizing his freak flag. ...If anyone wants one, I still have the spools of the stuff.

That is not very cold. We just returned from one of the warmest JMTs I can remember. All night temps were a warm 32-40. I can recall plenty of trips with temps as low as 18F and frozen water bottles multiple days, even in early August.

He will be fine, best thing to do is just get up and going and climb those passes even faster in the cool mornings.
Best wishes.

It looks like he spent the night at Lake Virginia -- a pretty place.

Lake Virginia


It is perched on a plateau, and his hike will soon drop into "Tully Hole", which is just a descent into the Fish Creek canyon. It is quite a remote place -- the surprise comes when you see the big steel bridge that crosses Fish Creek.

______________________

(Pics from my 2010 hike of this section)

Awesome pics, Steve! Thank you for sharing.

Salty's on his way again. It looks like he spent yesterday loafing at VVR (Vermillion Valley Resort) at Edison Lake. I understand that place can be pretty comforting -- hot meals and showers, and a lot of other JMT hikers to trade stories.

Today, he's on his way up the Bear Creek trail, skipping the ferry ride back across Edison Lake.

Yup, that was me. Knew that flag flying from his pack. He was actually carrying extra flagging in his pack, pulled it out and cut me a piece. We leapfrogged up to Donohue. This was a section hike for me, and I exited at Reds. Supercool to meet SD.

He crossed Muir Pass around noon today. That is where the round Muir Pass Hut is found -- has a cone-shaped granite roof. He could be having thunderstorms up there today, so the hut would have provided welcome shelter.


Some geek on Muir Pass hut, from 2008

Definitely no snow on Muir Pass like that this August 7.

Guess Salty does not have a sat phone link to beam us some live pictures.

My picture was from 6/24/08. Much earlier in the summer, and I think it was a normal snow winter.

I imagine Salty is experiencing all the fury of the Sierra tonight. He's camped at a marked "campsite" on older topo maps, just a quarter mile west of Big Pete Meadow.

I sure hope he has decent rain gear and a good tent. This afternoon, we had 108 F here in Fresno, and then a storm dumped what might be half an inch of rain. (Price of raisins will sure go up now, since much of the crop was lying out on trays in the fields.) Lots of thunder and lightning. The storm center tracked northward through the middle of the Central Valley. Up in the Sierra, radar showed lots of rainfall, too.

Here's the Doppler Radar map showing the Sierra from The Weather Channel. Rainfall seems to have stopped as I write this.

Saltydog stopped before 2 PM yesterday, on the trail above Palisade Lake. The Sierra had a huge set of thunderheads hovering yesterday, so I am thinking he stopped to pitch camp and try to stay dry.

Here's his Spot map from this morning:


Today, and for the next 4 days, the weather for the area is sunny. So maybe he'll be able to cruise along for a while.

I am remembering when I crossed the pass where he is now: It was earlier (June), and the S side had icy spots covering the trail. So we had to shortcut the switchbacks, and just go straight downslope to avoid the icy places. We headed off the JMT half a mile or so, and I got up early the next morning and bagged Split Mountain. Fun times!

We never met him on our trip - passed him somewhere on our alternate route in the north, and then power hiked south to get through before the weather came in. When I saw the big cirrus clouds at Forester Pass, I knew we weren't going back north as originally planned. We lucked out with the weather window and had probably the best weather I've had in 25 years of hiking up there. Cool, breezy, dry, no bugs. All those who were up there since Sunday when we hiked out got to experience what those cirrus clouds were telling me.

Not a great location to pitch a tent there on Mather, but better than right on the pass (where there is one small site just north of the crest)

It is curious how the most inhospitable waste can be made homely by the addition of a few tents.
Frank Smythe, Kamet Conquered, in
Frank Smythe. The Six Alpine/Himalayan Climbing Books, page 422

pretty sparse there on north side of Mather, but what a glorious scene to behold on the other side - the Upper Basin, one of my favorite areas. Lots of flat area to camp - hope he got there ok.

Salty's SPOT shows he cleared Pinchot Pass this morning, and now he's on a long 5-mile descent, dropping 3600' elevation, to the Woods Creek bridge.

Pinchot is at 12,100', Woods Creek crossing is 8500'.

Here's a photographer's view of the bridge:   aka the "Golden Gate of the John Muir Trail".




Here's my video crossing, from 6/29/08
______________

The descent to Woods Creek is the stretch of JMT I most can do without. Hate every step below the Sawmill Pass junction.

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I suppose there's less water this year than in 08.

water is flowing everywhere, but not deep. I was surprised to find some of the smaller streams still flowing last week, when in other not so dry years many were totally dry this time of year.

My favorite side stream with clean water was still going, deep down in hot Fish Valley:



At least last week, I would say 90% of the water you cross on a JMT hike was still flowing. It was just a lot lower in most places. Only at Evolution you have to take your shoes off to get across.

Lakes are lower than usual too if the topography allows them to drain below their normal level. Places like Wanda Lake are 100% full, though



Swampy areas on the other hand, like Jackson Meadow along Minnow Creek across from Cascade Valley was near dry this August - I had to look hard and long to find any flowing water to filter something too cook our supper. You just don't want to use this stuff for your Beef Stroganoff:

Wardrobe Malfunction!

Salty's Spot has failed. His last signal came out at 11 AM, and nothing since. Unfortunately that has left us all wondering ...and some worrying.

However, I am sure he's ok -- he's on a heavily traveled trail, probably seeing other hikers every few hours. I cannot imagine any other issue other than his Spot (or the satellite receiving system) just plain failing.

This will be interesting when he finally walks out and tells us what occurred.

I do know that Richard P had a similar failure, where his Spot just quit. I think the Spot people replaced his.

Thanks for sharing. It's a whole other world outside that I never new about and I am in LOVE now!

Thanks, Fishmonger! Good insight on water supply. Pictures are so inviting. I can almost taste water from the stream.

It's gotta be tough for family sitting and waiting to hear from Saltydog, when his Spot was working so well before.

I expect he made it to Rae Lakes today, maybe over Glenn Pass. Here's my shot from '08 of Rae Lakes:

My spot went kaput on me on Friday (and yesterday) as well. I wonder if something was up with with their satellite system? I was able to get a test message through last night once I was home, but nothing went through while I was out hiking. (I was hiking Whitney, so similar general vicinity give or take a few dozen miles)

Holy kamoly! You're right! His Spot just sent another signal 2 hours ago, from Glenn Pass.

...and I notice it is a "CheckIn" signal, not a "Track". I wonder what the problem is.


Think I'll give my own a try now.

Just called SPOT customer service. Recording says they are closed until Monday. ...appears they can't afford to stay open on weekends. Not good.

Edit: I called my Inyo N.F. contacts at the Wilderness Permit number, since they were discussing the possibility of their trail rangers carrying Spots this summer, to see if they were getting any signals. I didn't get any confirmation on that, but they did say someone called in to report no Spot signal from another hiker on the trail. FindmeSpot is definitely having problems.

Hi.. I did not get a spot report from Desiree yesterday(I get 2 a day) she is also doing the JMT and at 2:50p today she and her friend were at Rae Lakes and doing fine..

mark

todays report


noreply@findmespot.com


spot
Latitude:36.81073
Longitude:-118.39960
GPS location Date/Time:08/25/2013 14:50:28 PDT

Message:Everything is OK. Life is good! We're hiking right along.

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/DZhyR/36.81073N/118.39960W

If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=36.81073,-118.39960&ll=36.81073,-118.39960&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

spot

You have received this message because spot has added you to their SPOT contact list.

Ready for Adventure
FindMeSPOT.com

Just checked on Salty's progress, and he just made the Whitney Summit, 8:25 AM! Way to go Saltydog!!!

The webcam shows an outstandingly clear blue sky. That's a great way to finish the JMT!

Doug at the Portal Store reported "rain all day yesterday and late last night." I hope Saltydog had a dry day on the other side.

Congratulations

Now no need for wagga to post on the Chat Room
"Where in the World is Salty? "

His last Spot signal came out from the North Fork Lone Pine Creek. Spot signals don't make it out very well from Whitney Portal due to the high ridges, so I think that is the last signal we will see.

Congratulations on completing the JMT, Saltydog! It will be fun reading your trip report.

To: Some Geek

Why is this hut safe to shelter in during thunderstorms and the Mt. Whitney hut is not safe to be in during thunderstorms?

> Why is this hut safe to shelter in during thunderstorms and the Mt. Whitney hut is not safe to be in during thunderstorms?

Hmmmm.... not sure it is safer! One really needs to read this: Backcountry Lightning Avoidance, including the Backcountry Lightning Risk Management paper by John Gookin, and AlanK's writeup on this forum: Lightning: Thunderstorms on Whitney?.

Based on the fact that the Whitney Summit hut has a wooden floor, and has been grounded well, with heavy electric cables and lightning rods, I would say the Whitney hut is safer. Granted it has the warning sign, but I think that is there warn people so if something bad DOES happen, they cannot say they didn't know.

The Muir Pass hut has no grounding wiring or lightning rods, and the floor is the same material as the walls and roof: granite and concrete cement. It would be safer if it had some metal outside connected to grounding rods.

When I wrote that it might be a welcome shelter, I was thinking of wind, rain and hail, but not lightning. If I were caught there in a lightning/thunderstorm, I think I would take use lightning stance and try to stand on an insulated pad, as suggested in the Gookin paper.